Before dropping Grainger off, Logan had swapped phone numbers with her and they’d made a clear commitment to be in touch later in the day. Logan had then made the journey back to Paris and arrived at the safe house ten minutes outside the two-hour limit that Mackie had given him. Inside, he walked casually into the lounge, expecting to see Mackie there, so he was shocked to see a man he didn’t recognise sitting at the desk, facing the door. Logan guessed the man was a few years younger than himself. He was fresh-faced and dressed in an open-necked shirt with a blue blazer.
Logan stopped in the doorway, alarmed by the unexpected presence, and his hand instinctively reached toward the butt of the handgun stuffed in his trousers.
The man looked up and met Logan’s eyes. ‘He’s here,’ he said.
‘Logan? You’re there?’ said Mackie, over the conference phone.
Logan sighed and carried on walking over to the desk, eyeing the young man suspiciously.
‘I’m here,’ he said.
‘Good. Well, take a seat.’
‘I thought you would be here too.’ The tone of his voice showed Logan wasn’t pleased by the surprise.
‘Well, I would have been if you hadn’t left me with such a shitstorm to deal with back here. Things are getting complicated, Logan, very complicated.’
‘And who is this?’ Logan said, sneering at the man behind the desk, who reciprocated Logan’s less-than-impressed look.
‘This is Paul Evans.’
Evans nodded on cue.
‘My replacement,’ Logan concluded, starting to put the pieces together.
‘Well, in a way, yes,’ Mackie said. ‘But I think we can all come to a compromise on that. I don’t think you realise just how hard I’m working to keep you on this case, Logan. Evans has been drafted in to replace you, against my say-so, but luckily for you he’s willing to help us both out here. For some reason, I still trust that with you on board we can get to the bottom of Modena’s disappearance more quickly than we can without you.’
‘Is that so,’ Logan said, looking Evans in the eye. The young agent held Logan’s stare, a stoic expression on his face.
It didn’t surprise Logan that he hadn’t recognised the face of Evans, a fellow agent. Unless he’d worked with someone directly then there was no reason for him to know their face or their name.
‘And whose decision was it to replace me?’ Logan questioned.
‘It was the committee’s decision. Nothing I could do about that.’
‘Lindegaard,’ Logan stated.
‘It’s not important right now,’ Mackie said. ‘What’s important is that you keep out there, keep on after Modena. Let me handle the politics.’
Logan didn’t push the subject, but he knew it would be Lindegaard behind the decision to remove him from the case. He’d never seen eye to eye with the man. Although they rarely had direct dealings, their paths had crossed numerous times in the past. Most recently, and most regrettably, had been when Logan had slept with the man’s sister. He hadn’t known that fact beforehand; it was just one of life’s coincidences. After a fractious relationship, in which Logan had only been interested for a couple of weeks, he’d had a tough time rebuking her many subsequent advances. Ultimately that had incurred the significant wrath of her older brother, to whom she’d been mouthing off about the nasty man who’d been treating her like dirt.
That was all in the past, as were all their other run-ins, but Lindegaard was a man who held a grudge. Logan guessed that in that respect, the two men were very alike.
‘So what are we doing here?’ Logan said, looking at Evans as he spoke but talking to Mackie.
‘Tell me what happened at Blakemore’s house,’ Mackie said. ‘Why is he dead?’
‘Isn’t it in the police file?’ Logan said.
‘The one that conveniently omits the presence of a certain super-spy?’
‘Thanks for the accolade. Yeah, that file.’
‘Well, it gives me some of it, but I want to hear it from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.’
‘We can safely say that the link to Blakemore was good. We saw Modena being dragged to a van at the back of the house.’
‘Did you actually see Modena’s face?’ Evans said.
‘No,’ Logan sighed, raising an eyebrow. He did not like being challenged by the young agent, whose stuffy accent suggested to Logan that he was likely to have come from a well-to-do family. Exactly the kind of agent Logan had come across time and time again in his days, who thought he was the next big thing but ultimately ended up taking a desk job after finding fieldwork just that bit too, well, real.
‘But you’re sure it was him?’ Evans queried.
‘Unless Selim and Blakemore have kidnapped someone else recently then yeah, I’m sure.’
‘Any idea what was happening out there?’ Mackie said.
‘I think that Blakemore has to be key to the kidnapping. That’s the only explanation that works for me. Whatever this is about, Blakemore was the key organiser. Has to be that way. He recruited Selim into this.’
‘You don’t think it was the other way around?’
‘No chance. If this was Selim’s deal then he wouldn’t have bothered with Blakemore in the first place. He didn’t need him. Blakemore brought in Selim to help out. Provide them with the terrorism link to keep us all guessing. They probably knew each other through business deals. Drugs and weapons and the like. We should check out that connection.’
It was a connection they should have found when they were investigating Selim before. It might have prevented Modena’s kidnapping happening in the first place if Blakemore had already been locked up.
‘That’s already underway,’ Mackie confirmed. ‘With a bit of hard negotiation we’ve got direct access to what’s coming out of Blakemore’s house and all of his personal records. We’re looking over every financial transaction that Blakemore has been a party to in the past five years.’
Logan nodded. ‘What I want to know is how and why Blakemore got involved in the first place.’
‘Money would be my guess,’ Mackie said.
‘That’s where I’m going too,’ Evans chipped in.
Logan again gave him the raised eyebrow, this time for the unexpected interjection.
‘What? You might have a couple of days’ head start, but this sort of puzzle is exactly what I’m good for,’ Evans explained. ‘The way I see it, Blakemore hired Selim to provide the front for the operation, muddy the water a bit.’
Logan had to admit, he was pleasantly surprised by Evans’s comment. Finally someone else who was on his wavelength. Not that it made the man’s presence any more welcome for Logan. He had no intention of working out in the field with him.
‘But Selim must have planned to cross Blakemore all along,’ Evans said, looking at Logan. ‘He probably got paid handsomely by Blakemore for his part, knowing all the time that he was going to kill the guy and run off with Modena. For Selim, it’s all win-win. What we still don’t know is who paid Blakemore in the first place. Or why Modena was kidnapped.’
‘Well, I’m not sure that’s the biggest concern right now,’ Mackie argued. ‘The most important thing is still to rescue Modena. The whys and wherefores of Blakemore won’t help us to locate Selim. Or Modena.’
Logan had to agree with that. Knowing who had hired Blakemore and why was all very interesting, but it didn’t help get Modena back. And it didn’t help get to Selim, which, for Logan, was still the main event. But then …
‘If Modena was snatched for a reason,’ Logan mused, a thought hitting him, ‘that reason could still be important. What if Modena was kidnapped because he’s got some priceless information that’s worth a lot of money to someone?’
‘Like what?’ Mackie said.
‘I’ve no idea. But surely it’s important that we find out? If they were after information, and Selim and his cronies now have it, what further damage could there still be to come?’
‘It still doesn’t help us actually find Selim,’ Mackie said. ‘I’m not denying that I’m dying to find out who hired Blakemore and why, but that’s got to go on the back burner. At least, for you it has. We’ve got a team already going over Blakemore’s life: his bank accounts, credit cards, business dealings, phone records. As well as helping you, Evans will lead that side of the investigation. Sooner or later, we’ll find out who hired Blakemore and why. But right now, you concentrate on getting Modena back. Find Selim.’
Logan mulled over Mackie’s words. It should have been what he wanted to hear: an order to go after Selim. That’s what he had wanted from the start. Much more than he had wanted to rescue Modena. But now, he felt like there was still a big piece of the jigsaw missing. Like there was much more to Modena’s kidnapping than met the eye. It was an uncomfortable feeling.
‘Is there anything at all that the police have found so far that could help us locate Selim?’ Logan said.
‘It’s going to take them a long time to process,’ Mackie admitted. ‘Evans can give you the low-down when we’re finished on this call.’
Another thought suddenly came to Logan. ‘When we arrived, they were already loading up the van to go. That was before we heard any gunfire. And given Blakemore’s state when we found him, I think Selim’s ambush had only just started.’
‘Blakemore’s state? You’re making it sound like he was drunk and disorderly. He was a complete mess!’
‘I know he was. But it was nothing that couldn’t have been done in five minutes. And the van was being loaded up by one of Blakemore’s guys. It wasn’t just Selim’s man. That to me suggests that Blakemore thought they were getting out of there. They had a plan to go somewhere else. Maybe it was because of the heat on them, or maybe they had planned to move out all along. Either way, the key to where they were going will be in that house somewhere.’
‘And you think Selim will go there still? The same place Blakemore had planned for them?’
‘It’s got to be worth a shot. We know Selim’s only been in France for a few days. It would have made more sense for him to let Blakemore arrange all those details. Then all Selim had to do was kill him and he already had everything he needed planned and in place for him.’
‘I agree,’ Evans said, catching Logan’s eye, who nodded in response. ‘It’s definitely worth checking it out.’
‘Okay, we’ll keep that in mind. How are you doing for supplies?’ Mackie asked.
‘I need some more magazines,’ Logan said.
‘Okay, there’s fresh equipment in the cupboard in the bedroom next to you. Anything else?’
‘Did you get my IDs?’
‘Yeah. Why, you planning on going somewhere?’
‘Not yet, but it’s about time I swapped over. Burrows has been all over the place for the past couple of days. And he very nearly got me into trouble.’
‘Well, just keep your eye out. Don’t assume they’re not still after you.’
‘Who’s not still after me?’ Logan said, agitated that Mackie hadn’t yet said anything more about the two attackers back at the hotel.
‘I can’t explain just now. Like I said before, you’re making a lot of enemies out there.’
Logan sensed he wasn’t going to get any more information than that. He didn’t know why Mackie was being so cagey, but what could he do? If Mackie had thought it would help, he would have answered Logan’s question. All he could do was remain vigilant, as Mackie had suggested.
‘Is there anything else?’ Logan asked.
‘Just keep me in the loop, please,’ Mackie said. ‘Both of you.’
‘Of course,’ Evans responded.
They ended the call. Logan and Evans stayed sitting, an uncomfortable air still between them, though Logan was pleased that Evans seemed to be well on his side.
‘So what now?’ Evans said.
‘Well, it seems that you’re already up to speed.’
‘Yeah.’
‘I’m off then.’ Logan got up to leave.
‘What? Where are you going?’
‘I don’t know yet.’
‘We’re supposed to be working together now,’ Evans said, getting to his feet, frustration in his voice. ‘I’m helping you out here, don’t forget.’
‘I’m very grateful,’ Logan said without any real sincerity. He picked up a pen off the desk and a piece of paper and scribbled out his phone number. ‘When you find out something that can help me, give me a call.’
Logan put the pen down and handed the paper to Evans, who snatched it off him.
‘Oh, well, yeah, thanks a lot,’ Evans grumbled.
Logan ignored the sarcastic comment, turned on his heel and walked toward the door.